Former India’s captain and current middle-order batter Virat Kohli played one of the most memorable, jaw-dropping knocks against Pakistan in the 2022 T20 World Cup at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia.
Helpless against Pakistan’s pace, India were on the verge of defeat as they were 35-4 in 7.3 overs, requiring 125 runs in 75 balls.
That’s when Kohli built a match-winning partnership with Hardik Pandya and played an exceptional knock, scoring 82 off 53, including ten boundaries.
Kohli gathered praise from the cricket fraternity and similarly, many from Pakistan also applauded for the 34-year-old's heroics.
Former Pakistani pacer Mohammad Amir opened up on Kohli’s knock saying that the word “pressure” does not exist in the Indian’s dictionary.
“When 48 runs were needed off 3 overs, I told [Wahab] Riaz 'India match haara nahi hai' (India haven't lost the game yet). I told him 'Till the time Virat is there, India haven't lost the match'. I guaranteed him that," Amir told the Times of India in an interview.
"No batter in the world could play that miraculous knock, only Virat could. Virat is the only player who could take the game from that particular situation and turn it around, and he did. Riaz gave me a high-five after that match.
"The word pressure is not there in Virat's cricketing dictionary. If you ask Virat, he will surely say that that knock (at the T20 World Cup) vs Pakistan was the best innings of his life," Amir added.
Pakistan and India will meet one another on October 14 in the much-anticipated ICC World Cup 2023 match at the Narendra Modi Stadium, the biggest stadium in the world which can gather 132,000 spectators at a time.
Squads
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, M Wasim Jnr, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Saud Shakeel, Salman Ali Agha.
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav
